Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Software that detects age, gender, gaze and emotions could have privacy risksBy Emily Chung, CBC News Posted: Mar 14, 2016 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 14, 2016 3:10 PM ET(Of
course the spy tech is brought to you by the Clintonistas. No wonder
retail is going down the drain. I seldom go to malls ever. Support your
Mom and Pop stores.)As you cruise through a shopping
mall, you know you're being filmed by security cameras keeping an eye
out for shoplifters. What you may not know is that some of those cameras
may be capable of recording far more than a temporary copy of your
image.Software like Eyeris's Emovu, NEC's Neoface or
Eyesee let retailers determine your gender, race and approximate age,
where and how long you looked at different displays and whether you were
smiling or frowning at the time.In some cases, they
will recognize exactly who you are. That information can potentially be
cross-referenced with other data about you, such as how often you
shopped at that store, when you last visited, what you bought at that
time (and whether you've ever stolen anything.)You
may feel anonymous walking around the mall. But new software for store
surveillance cameras lets retailers identify things like your age,
gender and race and track your emotions and gaze as you move through the
store. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)Such technologies
have the potential to give brick-and-mortar retail stores "the same data
accuracy and ad targeting as any modern website," according to the
"Retail Collective Lab" exhibit showcasing examples at this year's DX3
technology, digital marketing and retail conference in Toronto earlier
this month.Online marketers have long argued the technology would lead to a more personalized and convenient shopping experience.But
privacy and surveillance experts say there are a lot of potential risks
when such highly personal information is being recorded, possibly
without any clear indication that it's happening.Among
the technologies showcased at the retail collective lab was Eyeris's
Emovu, which has just started testing its gender, age, emotion and gaze
detecting software in the retail space, said Alaoui Modar, the company's
founder and CEO. That could help stores optimize their layout and
displays, potentially improving the experience for customers.Eyeris's
Emovu software can work with any security camera and detect a
customer's age, gender, facial expression, where their gaze is directed
and for how long. (Emily Chung/CBC)So far, the
software is looking at things like how much time customers spend in
front of a given shelf before choosing, say, Coke versus Pepsi, or the
last impression they had before leaving the store."You
can have a camera right at the exit. Were they smiling Happy In a rush
Or just neutral?" Modar says. "And you can correlate all this data."

Works with any camera

Most stores already have security cameras to deter theft, so including systems like Eyeris is easy.'You're
getting into this area of creepiness, really, where you may not know
that this is happening and you may not know how much this is actually
happening.'- Geoff White, PIAC"We work with any camera, so many deployments don't necessarily have to be a major investment per se," he said.Consumer privacy advocates like Geoff White say the trouble is that such software systems are generally invisible."You're
getting into this area of creepiness, really, where you may not know
that this is happening and you may not know how much this is actually
happening," said White, a lawyer with the Ottawa-based Public Interest
Advocacy Centre.Some retail surveillance devices don't
even look like cameras. In a 2013 report on facial recognition,
Canada's privacy commissioner flagged EyeSee, a mannequin that uses a
camera disguised as an eye to collect data about shoppers' age, gender
and race.Alaoui
Modar, Eyeris's founder and CEO, said Emovu can detect a customer's
last impression before leaving the store: 'Were they smiling Happy In a
rush Or just neutral?' (Emily Chung/CBC)At DX3,
another product featuring cameras and emotion detection was Pepper the
Robot, sold by Paris-based Aldebaran. Pepper can show you products
you're looking for using voice recognition and a built-in tablet. If you
smile, it may show you more features. If you frown, it may switch to
another product, explained Alia Pyros, international communications
manager for Aldebaran.Jack Grannan, sales engineer for Aldebaran Softbank Group, downplayed potential privacy concerns."It's
really not any different than having a security camera that points at
the storefront," he said, adding, "You're not required to stop and talk
to the robot."'Way more intrusive than video'

But
Randy Lippert, an associate professor of criminology at the University
of Windsor who conducts research on camera surveillance, disagrees."This
is way more intrusive than video," he said. "This is really, really
intimate information that may seem harmless on the surface. But who
knows in particular contexts what it could be used for."A
security manager resets a surveillance camera at the Eaton Centre in
Toronto. Randy Lippert, a criminology professor at the University of
Windsor, says the detection of customers' age, gender, gaze and emotions
is 'way more intrusive than video.' (Adrien Veczan/Canadian Press)That
could include manipulative marketing or even discrimination by age,
gender or race. And customers won't necessarily know how the information
is stored or shared with third parties.Canada's
privacy commissioner notes that "facial image data is particularly
sensitive because it is unique and can be linked to many other
individual level data."While Canada's Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act requires businesses
to obtain consent from customers to obtain their personal information
for particular purposes, a 2012 study found that most stores failed to
comply with privacy laws even when using ordinary surveillance cameras.Can be carried out surreptitiously

The
Office of the Privacy Commissioner acknowledged that "since facial
recognition can be carried out surreptitiously without individuals'
knowledge and consent, it may sometimes prove tempting for organizations
to simply not inform individuals, and individuals would have no way of
knowing how their personal information is being used."While
a 2015 survey by IT consulting firm Computer Science Corp. found 27 per
cent of U.K. retailers use facial recognition, Lippert said he doesn't
think anyone knows the extent of its use in Canada.Some
recent reports suggested that high-end fashion retailer Saks Fifth
Avenue, which opened its first Canadian stores this month, uses facial
recognition to identify potential shoplifters. However, the company told
CBC News that those reports are "erroneous."The
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada told CBC News Friday it has
not received any complaints about retail use of facial recognition
technology.As for gaze and emotion detecting technology, Lippert doubts most Canadians are even aware it exists.PIAC's
White says customers need to start thinking and asking questions about
what's being collected by cameras in stores and how it's being used,
stored and shared."There's a great potential to use a
lot of information for positive purposes," he said. "There's just a
great deal of risk, especially when it comes to the security of that
information."http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/facial-recognition-stores-1.3487754

It's more than shopping. It's the replacement of the family unit with a whole new concept.